MANILA: Berry Henson of the United States held off a plucky late charge from local hope Jay Bayron to win his first Asian Tour title at the gruelling $300,000 ICTSI Philippine Open Sunday. The Asian Tour rookie made a pivotal up-and-down for par on the last hole to close with one-over-par 73 to clinch his second international title in the span of two weeks at the challenging Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Manila. Bayron battled to a 72 to finish in second place for a 284 total, one stroke off the champion. South Africa's Jbe Kruger, who finished second on three occasions last year, endured another agonising day when he placed third on 285. Digvijay Singh of India was a stroke back in fourth as he secured his first top-five placing since 2003. “I feel like I went 72 rounds with Manny Pacquiao this week and didn't get K.O. I played on a very difficult golf course and the weather was brutal. It was a hard win,” said Henson, who won with a total of five-under-par 283. McDowell grabs lead Reigning US Open champion Graeme McDowell birdied three of the first five holes Saturday to grab a share of the lead before darkness halted the third round of the Players Championship in Florida. McDowell matched American Nick Watney atop the leaderboard on 11-under par at the $9.5 million US PGA event with each having finished five holes of their third round on a day when afternoon storms halted play for 4 1/2 hours. Northern Ireland's McDowell sank a 13-foot birdie putt on the first hole, chipped in for a birdie at the third and dropped a five-foot birdie putt at five to stand three-under for the round with 13 holes to finish Sunday morning. McDowell expects the superior scoring conditions left after the storms passed to continue on the final day. Watney opened with back-to-back birdies to join McDowell one stroke ahead of Americans David Toms and Steve Stricker, who each had 13 holes to finish, with South Korean K.J. Choi and American Lucas Glover each on nine-under. Germany's Martin Kaymer, fighting to reclaim his World No. 1 status from idle Lee Westwood of England with a victory, endured a roller-coaster 12 holes before darkness struck. Others on eight-under were England's Luke Donald, American Jason Dufner, Sweden's Robert Karlsson and South African Rory Sabbatini. Clarke wins Mallorca Open Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke rallied from four shots down to win the Mallorca Open by three strokes Sunday after overnight leader Chris Wood stumbled on the back nine. Clarke went around in 1-under 69 to finish with a 6-under overall score of 274. Wood held a comfortable margin over Clarke and Shane Lowry (74) going into Sunday's final round at the Pula golf course, but a disastrous back nine cost the English player his maiden European Tour victory. Wood's back nine 40 left sent him to a 6-over 76 that left him tied with runner-up David Lynn (70) of England. Alastair Forsyth (70) finished four shots back in third, one better than Paul Lawrie (70) of Scotland, Irish player Shane Lowry (74), Graeme Storm (70) of England and Spanish golfer Jose Maria Olazabal (73), who helped redesigned the course where he won in 2005.
